


All But Invincible

by Oceanbourne



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Genre: Gen, everyone else is there for like 2 lines i guess, it's really just zeke and tatiana but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-28 22:39:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11427711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oceanbourne/pseuds/Oceanbourne
Summary: Alm comes across a lance of great prestige in the Royal Vault. The group wonders who will wield it.





	All But Invincible

**Author's Note:**

> I know you get Gradivus in a chest a bit beforehand, but I figure it makes a little more sense for it to be in the Royal Vault too. Anyways, because I really like Camus/Zeke, here's a short piece about him dealing with his memory loss and what Gradivus means to him.

The darkness within Duma’s halls feels alive, as if it were its own entity.

Ezekiel stays close to the torches whenever he can see one’s light burning along the walls. He can barely keep the heels of Alm, leading the group in front, in his sight. And every time they stray away from the torches, the darkness feels like it’s coming closer. It feels like a little demon is perching on his shoulder, beckoning him towards oblivion.

The halls are bleak, just like his memory when he first awoke in Rigel. Darkness reminds him of an unknown past that plagues at him in the present. He grips his spear tighter, shifting his weight in the saddle of his horse. He hears Clive and Clair speaking to Alm in tones of recognition at the front of the group, and Ezekiel permits his shoulders to relax a little, hoping that they have found an end to these winding halls. Any reprieve from this labyrinth would be welcome.

“What’s wrong, Ezekiel?” a voice next to him asks when they sit around an unlit brazier, waiting for Alm to return from his excursion into the Royal Vault.

“Tatiana,” he says, placing a hand on her thigh as she sits down next to him. He feels like he should watch the permeter, in case of Terrors showing up. Without something to guard, Ezekiel feels incomplete. He regards Tatiana’s concerned face, and wonders if keeping her safe is enough. His teeth clench. Is there something more he can do?

“These narrow passageways are somewhat… disconcerting,” he admits. “I feel I have no room to stretch my limbs.”

She reaches up to stroke his forearm, a soft smile on her face. “Of course it feels small to you - you’re enormous! You and your horse take up half the width of the corridor.” Tatiana’s mouth opens up in an “o,” and she stares at him. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that! It is only right for a powerful frame to house a powerful man.”

Ezekiel feels he should at least give her a smile. It’s the least he can do, after all she’s done for him.

“You may remember that the first thing I asked for when I was well enough to leave the priory on my own was a horse.”

Tatiana nods. “Yes, it was, and I was surprised! Not many in Rigel ride horses unless they are knights of the realm. I did not peg you for a soldier, at first.”

“The desire surprised me, too. But it felt right, to ride on horseback, and travel between the towns. It felt like my calling, though to what end, I still do not know.”

Ezekiel looks at the lance in his hands, and frowns.

“I found that wielding a weapon came just as naturally to me as walking. So when Emperor Rudolf bestowed upon me the chance to become a knight of the realm, and defend your village, I could not have asked for more, as a man without neither name nor title.”

Tatiana’s response is interrupted as Alm returns from the Royal Vault, his armor bruised in a few spots and his breath ragged. In one hand he carries a shining sword, which he introduces as Falchion. Its legend is impressive enough, but after the excitement over the divine blade dies down, he turns his attention to the object in his other hand. It carries a great lance, which Ezekiel looks upon in wonder. It is painted with a striking golden sheen that invokes power, and he feels some emotions stir in him, although he cannot pinpoint what exactly.

Alm shrugs off the concerns of what happened to him, and instead focuses on the lance. Since he already has Falchion, Alm begins to decide who he should bequeath the lance to. He reads an inscription carved on the lance’s hilt. Gradivus.

Ezekiel can feel power radiate from that name. Clive pipes up, noting that in his story of Archanean history it is rumored to be one of the three legendary weapons that Anri and his army of heroes used to defeat the Dark Dragon, Medeus.

Clair and Mathilda both hold the lance in their hands before offering different complaints; Clair insists it is too heavy to properly wield, while Mathilda is not used to wielding a weapon at such long range. Clive prefers the feel of his steel lance, forged at Ezekie’s very own village to a weight that suits him. This leaves Ezekiel, who has never used any specific weapon during his service in the Rigelian army. Many lances and spearheads have passed through his hands, and he cannot recall a preference for one or the other.

Still, if Alm had found it in the vault, it must possess tremendous value, and any advantage they can get for the upcoming battle with Duma and his accursed apostle is one they should take.

“Here, try it out,” Clive offers, passing Gradivus to him. The shaft is lighter than it looks, and even as he takes it in his hands Ezekiel can already feel the dim light in the corridor outside the vault begin to dissipate. It has not grown any brighter, but at the very least, the darkness does not feel so suffocating.

Gradivus does not feel any different in his hands than any other lance, but he is accustomed to using lances of greater lengths. His strength allows him to rectify the natural unbalance that a longer weapon brings, and he does enjoy being able to take on enemies from both close and medium range.

The lance feels familiar as well, but Ezekiel has noticed that all of them had seemed to sit easily in his hands. He must have been a proficient lance knight in his previous life. But what Ezekiel can appreciate most about Gradivus is not its might, nor its length, nor appearance. It makes him feel comfortable, even though he has a hunch that there is a connection between him and this regalia of Archanea. Gradivus provides him an anchor to ground his reality in, an opposite to the pitch black seas that he often finds himself floundering in when thinking about his life.

He has only felt the same way when around one other thing. 

Tatiana.

And Tatiana looks towards him, with that look of concentration on her face she has every time she offers him a new Rigelian dish to sample, wondering if he would like it. “Well? How does it feel?”

“It feels… complete.” The longer Ezekiel holds it, the more he likes it. “It feels complete. That is not to say that I could not perform at my peak with another lance, but if this weapon will grant its user great power, then I feel an affinity towards it.”

Tatiana smiles, and Alm looks satisfied. “We should hurry, then. Celica awaits us.”

Everyone gives varying degrees of assent, and they begin to head towards the temple’s center chamber. Ezekiel again makes up the back of the party, marveling on the feel of Gradivus in his hand. He is not one to boast, but this lance has given him a security he has not felt in a long time.

A foreign saying comes into his mind, one he has never uttered, but one he feels he knows, like an actor reciting from a script.

_With this lance, I am all but invincible. ___


End file.
